Johnston City holds off Chester varsity, 28-13

<span>JOHNSTON CITY -- After spotting Chester an early seven-point lead, Johnston City scored 22 straight points as part of a 28-13 win over the previously undefeated Yellow Jackets on Saturday at Ralph Davison Field.</span>

<span><span id="docs-internal-guid-2da3a0cd-bce3-2e9a-811f-876af8d92aec"><span>It was the Yellow Jackets' first road Black Diamond Conference loss since a 35-28 defeat by Eldorado on October 7, 2011.</span></span></span>

<span>Short touchdown runs by Tristen Wells and Dakota Edwards gave Johnston City a 14-7 lead at halftime. The Indians extended it to 22-7 when Nicoali Gualdoni picked off a pass from Chester quarterback Wyatt Ruehling and returned it 55 yards for the touchdown with 9:05 left in the third quarter.</span>

<span>"Our offense had been stagnant and learning as we go," said Johnston City coach Dan Mings. "But we feel like we're big enough - we've got enough big running backs and those kinds of things - that if we ever got it, we can power the football, run downhill, do some things that we need to do and that we'd be OK."</span>

<span>Ruehling gave the Yellow Jackets a glimmer of hope when he scored from a yard out to cut Johnston City's lead to 22-13 with 6:36 remaining, but Christian Gray's extra point try missed. The Indians added an insurance touchdown on a 4-yard run by Austin Thompson with 1:15 remaining.</span>

<span>"We didn't play very well," said Chester coach Bryan Lee. "We did not come out and play up to our capabilities and it hurts.</span>

<span>"I don't know if there's one play or one facet of the game you can look at and say 'Hey, this is what we did wrong.'</span>

<span>"We had a little bit of trouble holding on to the ball, but that wasn't the difference in the game."</span>

<span>Ruehling went 13-for-29 passing for 221 yards and a 10-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Howie that gave Chester a 7-0 lead with 2:38 left in the first quarter after Gray's extra point.</span>

<span>After that, Johnston City's ground game and a key fumble recovery by the Indians turned the tide of the game in the home team's favor.</span>

<span>"I thought we did not execute when it called for us to execute," Lee said. "We had trouble getting into a rhythm and (Johnston City) came out pretty fired-up and we had flashes of doing what we were supposed to be doing, but couldn't put it together all day long."</span>

<span>Nicolai Gualdoni led the Indians with 70 yards on 11 carries, while Thompson contributed 51 yards on 13 carries with a touchdown. Edwards went 2-for-4 passing for 36 yards.</span>

<span>Most importantly for Johnston City, the Indians were able to counter Chester's "third shift" offense that had taken over games in the second half.</span>

<span>"I promise you that was the talk at halftime," Mings said. "They had come back on everybody and not just come back, they had embarrassed everybody by putting up 30 or 40 points.</span>

<span>"We felt that by us not having to play as many people both ways, and being able to stay a little bit fresher than most teams, that we would somehow be able to maintain (the momentum) and that worked to our favor (Saturday)."</span>

<span>Blake Eggemeyer led Chester on the ground with 46 yards on 10 carries, while Luke Hartman had 32 yards on four carries. After being dominant running the ball in the first four weeks of the season, the Yellow Jackets were held to only 84 yards on the ground.</span>

<span>"We're not necessarily built to be a comeback team," Lee said. "We did manage to outgain them, strangely enough. We had more offense than (Johnston City) did, we just couldn't get it when it counted."</span>

<span>This week is Homecoming week for Chester, with a week of events planned both inside and outside of Chester High School. The Yellow Jackets will welcome 0-5 Christopher-Zeigler-Royalton on Friday for a 7 p.m. contest at W.O. Smith Field. The Bearcats lost to Sesser-Valier-Waltonville-Woodlawn on Saturday, 66-27.</span>

<span>"Defensively, they're not a powerhouse," Lee said about C-Z-R. "They've given up some yards, so hopefully, we'll be able to move the football and get up early and take care of business."</span>

<span>Defensively, Jordan Berner led Chester with 17 tackles, including seven solo. He also had two catches for 66 yards, but battled a stomach virus for much of the game.</span>

Last time against C-Z-R:

<span>Joel Clendenin ran for 159 yards on 24 carries with six touchdowns, as Chester beat C-Z-R 40-20.</span>